If Collins didn't grab the jumper would he have got the free do you think?
No, I think it would have been play on as others have said they were both locking arms.
See the disconnect here Al (and also the reason I believe it was a shocking game-changing decision)? As you state/believe - if Collins had not 'held' his opponent by grabbing his jumper then it would have been play-on because both players were 'holding'! So you are saying that there is holding and there is holding? Any wonder the state of umpiring our great game is at the lowest point I can ever recall. And I do agree with you that the jumper tug is a visual thing but that's just my point - holding IS holding, regardless of the bloody way it's done and if those over-paid, M & M coloured, protected, prancing horses can't adjudicate correctly on such a simple act as holding another player then what hope do we have?
What i'm saying is that when two players lock arms, who do you you pin for holding? You see it in many marking and ruck contests where it is impossible to tell exactly who is responsible, if you are looking at it objectively. Sometimes you will see a player lock an opponents arm in an attempt to fool that umpire that they are being held.
But when a player grabs a jumper and the umpire sees it he simply has to pay the free kick, simply because it stands out so much as to who is holding who. If you want the umpires to let some go and not others, gee that opens up a whole can of worms. As you say that would then be a case of there being holding and there being holding.
If the roles were reversed and a port forward grabbed a Richmond Backmans jumper and the umpire let it go allowing Port to kick a match winning goal, would you be happy with the decision? I'm sure that if that happened these forums would ignite with abuse for the umps for missing an "obvious" holding the jumper?
The simple fact is the players know that if they are caught grabbing an opponents jumper they will be pinned. Sometimes they take the risk and sometimes they get away with it. In this case the ump saw it and paid the free.
